Project
Happy Blessed Primary School
Project Complete!
Somewhere in Uganda, in a district called Gomba, is a school called Happy Blessed Primary School. This school has 430 pupils - 240 of whom are girls and 190 who are boys. The host villages surrounding this school have about 2,000 people.
Children walk for over 5 kilometers from the nearby villages to attend this school. However, this school does not have a safe water source within the premises. The school has only 2 toilets that are shared amongst the boys, girls and the teachers causing them to spend a lot of class time queuing for the toilet. Some of them end up using the nearby bushes as a toilet because they are desperate.
These children are required to fetch water for use at the school – for drinking, for cooking lunch, for washing hands and for cleaning the classrooms. During school hours, they have to walk for over 2 kilometers, across a highway, and then down a steep, slippery slope to go reach the water source. This water source produces very little water which is also unsafe. It is also shared by the over 2,000 people from the nearby villages, so when the children get there, they have to wait for over 2 hours in the queue to get water thus missing out on classes. Also, the jerrycans (water containers) can weigh up to 43 pounds, so children will often fall while trying to carry the containers on their heads as they walk up the the slippery hills. The highway also exposes these kids to traffic accidents as they cross the road.
Because the water is unsafe on average 5 children suffer from diarrhea from this school every week, missing out on school. We want to build 2 latrines, (5 stalls for girls and 3 for boys). These latrines will save these children from wasting time queuing for toilets and from using the nearby bushes as toilets thus having more time for classes. In addition we will build a rain water harvesting system and 20,000 liter tank so that the school will have enough water throughout the year. We will also construct 8 filters to clean the water so that the children can have safe water and never have to suffer from diarrhea. Our implementing partner is a women’s organization that has 20 trained women masons to do all the construction. These women also run a business to raise funds for sustainability. They make soap that contains a mosquito repellent as well as cleans skin. This is a valuable product in malaria prone areas.
H2O for Life is not a WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) project implementer. We have partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) implementing WASH in Schools projects around the world. Our NGO partners match funds needed for each school project. We also have a generous donor that provides us with an interest-free loan that, along with matching funds, allows for many projects to be started or possibly even completed before total funds have been raised. In rare situations we reserve the right to reallocate funds to alternate project(s).
Questions? Ask us at 651-756-7577 or info@h2oforlifeschools.org.
Project Sponsors
August 21, 2019
WASH Intervention Successful
In 2019 H2O for Life funded a number of women led organizations working in East Africa to promote safe water access and better sanitation services in schools. Uganda Women's Water...
